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Bargain hunters may be savvy with scissors or an online coupon
code, but consumers are just getting used to the idea of
redeeming coupons through their mobile devices. This means the
people and the technology behind your point-of-sale need to be
equipped to troubleshoot issues with new paperless price
reductions.

As a small-business owner, one advantage is that you don’t need
to invest in pricey technology to make your coupons easy to use.
Building an effective mobile coupon strategy is as simple as
following these three steps.

Step One: Create your coupon in a mobile-friendly
format.
The mobile coupons that are easiest for consumers to use
generally come in three basic formats, each with its own pros and
cons as follows:

1. Text-only coupons. You can create text-only
coupons using a Short Message Service (SMS) provider or your
email marketing service provider.

Best for: Text messages and mobile emails.

Pros: Almost all phones have text and email capabilities. You
can include short links, coupon codes or instructions for using
the coupon in the text.

Cons: You only have 160 characters to communicate and deliver
the discount offer.

2. Image coupons. You can create an image of
your coupon with a scanner or graphic design software. Use .jpg
or .gif file types for mobile devices.

Best for: Including coupons in social-media posts, e-mails
and Multimedia Message Service (MMS).

Pros: Images can be displayed on the majority of mobile
devices.

Cons: Links in images aren’t clickable and the details of the
coupon may be too small to read on a small screen if your
customers don’t have smartphones with zoom and scroll
capabilities.

3. Web-based and app-based coupons. You can
create a coupon in HTML and put it on your website or, better
yet, on a mobile web page. You can also create mobile-friendly
web and app-based coupons using Google Places, Yelp and Foursquare.

Best for: Mobile web pages and local directory sites.

Pros: You can include links to your coupons in the
advertising.

Cons: The web pages containing your coupons need to be
optimized for mobile, or they might not display properly on the
majority of mobile devices.

Step Two: Give your coupon redeeming
qualities.
To give your prospects and customers the ability to redeem your
mobile coupons, make sure they contain one or more of the
following redemption options:

Use the text in your coupon to ask people to use their mobile
phone to show the coupon at your physical point of sale. Make
sure the humans involved know how to accept the coupon and know
how to spot currently valid versions.

Phone numbers in your coupons can be pressed or clicked from
text messages, emails and web-based coupons. Use the text in your
coupons to ask people to mention the coupon when they call, and
keep your mobile coupon offers unique so you know when your
callers are responding to the mobile version of your coupon.

Links can be tagged with a unique redemption code if you have
a sophisticated shopping cart and database, or you can include
the coupon code in the text of the coupon and ask people to enter
the code into the online order form. Make sure your website’s
shopping cart works on mobile devices before choosing this
method.

If you plan to scan bar codes at your point-of-sale to
automate the redemption process, don’t expect your regular
equipment to do the job. You’ll likely need a special scanner
that can read the bar codes from a mobile screen.

Step Three: Distribute to mobile devices.
Now, make sure your mobile-friendly formats make their way to
your customers’ devices. These methods will aid your distribution
plan.

Use your text-messaging service provider or email marketing
service provider to deliver a text-only coupon or link to your
web-based or image-based coupon. Remember that you can only send
these messages to a permission-based list.

Send them via MMS text messages, which can contain pictures
and more than 160 characters. MMS also requires opt-in permission
and a service provider to send the messages on behalf of your
business.

Place your coupon on your high-traffic web pages. Make sure
those pages are designed for mobile devices. Make sure they’re on
your own mobile app and social media sites as well.

Ask customers to snap a picture of your paper coupon or
include a mobile bar code on your coupon that links to an image
or web page containing the coupon.

Place your coupon on other mobile-friendly websites such as
Google Places and Foursquare.

Remember, the goal is to give your discount-deserving customers
good customer service to go along with their bargains. Your
coupon strategy will go a long way toward creating lasting
customer relationships.